


Adventurers, Beware

by stbartsmolly



Category: Jumanji (1995), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Jumanji, F/M, this is crazy but it's happening
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 22:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7289452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stbartsmolly/pseuds/stbartsmolly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With laughter in her voice Molly said, “So, shall I roll the dice now then?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adventurers, Beware

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of a Sherlolly!Jumanji AU came to me two years ago and now I did the thing.

Sat on the floor opposite to her friend, Molly looked at Sherlock with a bored expression on her face.

"You want to play a board game?"

She had learned over the years that there were only two things one must do to keep Sherlock Holmes pleased: never be boring and always be ready for adventure. After years’ worth of shenanigans, she was now accustomed to the thrill of excitement that came with joining Sherlock on a case or learning something new in an experiment. Sitting in his living room now though, Molly couldn’t understand how a children’s game would be any sort of fun for either of them.

The game in question was on the table between them. It wasn’t like anything she had seen before; two panels laid open on opposite sides to reveal the board. Four paths lead to the centre where a flat, black, glass covered circle sat. Both panels were covered in writing and one side held a small compartment.

He ignored her question, merely gave her a perfunctory glance, and opened the compartment door to reveal a pair of dice and two animal figures.

He held the two game tokens in his hand so they could both see them; one was black and elephant shaped, the other was white and shaped like a rhinoceros.

"Sherlock–" 

He quickly cut her off and began his explanation.

"As I was walking home earlier today, I heard drums."

When he did nothing but observe the tokens, she grabbed them from his hand and dropped them on the board in frustration. It was usually Sherlock who was easily bored with anything that wasn’t moving fast enough, but tonight it seemed that is was Molly who was the impatient one.

When the animal shaped characters fell onto the game, they were immediately pulled up onto the first square on opposite paths of the game. Molly reached out a hand to move the rhinoceros from its place.

“It’s stuck,” she said, frowning. 

“Hm,” he hummed, his brows slightly scrunched, “Must be magnetised or something.” Sherlock lifted the board to look underneath. “Fascinating.”

He ran his hand against the bottom of the game but felt nothing obvious. _Magnets inside the board and inside the game pieces_ , he thought, _interesting, though serves no real purpose_. 

Satisfied with his conclusion, he traced the path from the white elephant, the start, to the black circle in the centre, the end, with his finger.

Confused about the magnetic game and apparent drums Sherlock heard, Molly huffed and stood up from her spot on the ground. Her companion looked up at her as she smoothed down her skirt and, after a moment, met her eyes.

“Sherlock,” she began, “I don’t care about board games, I’m not a child anymore.” She emphasised her statement by pushing her shoulders back and lifting her chin. _Putting on an obvious façade_ , Sherlock thought, _just as unnecessary as the magnets_. 

“Molly,” he said, rolling his eyes, “I already know you play board games once a week with your father at the hospital.” 

At the mention of her sick father, Molly’s bravado faltered. Sherlock continued, either not noticing the way she practically wilted like a dying flower or ignoring it for her sake. 

“Just sit back down and let me explain the drums to you and then we can play. I’ll even let you roll first.” His eyebrows rose in question and he gave her a look she rarely refused.

Molly cleared her throat, nodded once and then sat back down with a small sigh. Putting her hands in her lap, she looked up to him, ready to hear his explanation. 

“Right,” he began again, “I heard drums at the construction lot by the factory today so I went to investigate. The sound got louder as I got closer but none of the construction workers seemed to have heard it. Eventually, I dug out a chest from the dirt wall inside the lot. I used a shovel to break open the lock, found this,” he motioned to the game, “And brought it home.” 

Molly blinked once, twice, then said, “That’s quite and adventure, Sherlock.”

He rolled his eyes once more. “Molly—”

“So you heard mysterious drums,” she interrupted, “decided to _investigate_ , and then dug until you found buried treasure which turned out be a board game. Right,” she smirked at him, he glared back at her. “So what made the drumming noise then?”

Sherlock frowned, looked down at the dice in his hand and mumbled that he _hadn’t figured that out yet_.

With laughter in her voice Molly said, “So, shall I roll the dice now then?”

With a huff he handed her the dice. She grinned as she cupped them between her hands and shook them around, breaking the silence of the house. When she shook the dice for a second longer than necessary, Sherlock met her eyes and raised a single brow. Laughing, she finally opened her hands and let them roll onto the board. As she moved her hand to push the white rhinoceros six squares forward, something peculiar happened.

The animal shaped token began to move by itself.

With a gasp, she snatched her hands to her chest, all the mirth gone away as she watched the animal move across the board. When she looked up to Sherlock, mouth agape and eyes wide, she sees that his expression mirrored hers.

They two children quickly shut their mouths. Molly raised her eyebrows at him as if asking him to explain what just happened, her hand still clutched to her chest.

Sherlock cleared his throat and repeated what he had told her earlier, speaking quietly. “That’s why it’s magnetic, I suppose.” He nodded sharply once to back up his words. Molly agreed with a quiet _“Right.”_

Molly broke eye contact and looked down to the board. The game piece had stopped on the sixth square of its path, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. “Sherlock, _look_.”

Sherlock followed her gaze and looked to the centre of the board. Swirls of green and yellow began to appear in the black circle. The children both leaned in closer, heads nearly touching, to get a clear look at what the swirls were forming. 

Molly read aloud as the colours twisted into words. “ _At night they fly, you better run, these winged things are not much fun_.”

Simultaneously, they lifted their heads to look at each other. Sherlock’s eyes were lit up with excitement and Molly’s brow was furrowed with confusion. She cocked her head to the side.

“So it’s a riddle then?” she said. Her favourite part of their friendship was when she got to use her brain to work out the solution of a problem. She wasn’t as excited for the danger side of things as Sherlock was. The board game idea was turning out to be working well in her favour. “What happens when we figure it out? What if we can’t figure it out? Sherlock, what’s even the point of—”

Her sentence was cut off by her own gasp as a squeal-like sound echoed from the fireplace. Both heads quickly turned towards it, but no other noised were heard. 

“Sherlock…” Molly whispered, still looking at the fireplace, back rigid and eyes wide. The eerie silence of the house seemed to make everything louder. Molly wondered if Sherlock could hear the pounding of her heart. 

“Bats.”

Looking back towards her friend, she repeats him, brows furrowed again. “Bats?”

“The answer to the riddle. I believe it to be _bats_.” He looked back towards the hearth and cleared his throat. “Paired with what just echoed from in there,” he nodded towards the fireplace, “I’m positive it is bats.”

“What?” Molly cried, more confused than ever and honestly a bit frightened. Odd drums were one thing but strange noises from inside her friend’s house were another. “You’ve got bats in your house and this board game just predicted it?” 

Not completely understanding what was going on, Molly shook her head to clear away her thoughts. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt panic creeping in and she straightened her shoulders to attempt to brush it off. “Sherlock, please let’s just put it away. You’ve got loads of games, we can play something else.” 

Sherlock was about to protest but found he didn’t really want to. He felt a bit of alarm sneaking up his spine and Molly’s frightened eyes paired with her nearly desperate plea were enough for him to keep his mouth shut about continuing the game. 

“Alright,” he agreed, “No need to panic, it’s just a game after all.” 

Molly let out a sigh and her rigid frame slackened. Sherlock took the dice in his hand, ready to place them back into their compartment when the grandfather clock off to his left struck eight o’clock, ringing loudly throughout the house. The sudden noise shocked both of the children causing Molly to gasp and Sherlock to drop the dice.

Barely a moment after the dice landed, the black elephant began to move forward. 

Molly lifted a hand to her mouth, more than a little frightened now. “Sherlock…” She whispered from behind her fingers, watching as the token moved down its path. 

Sherlock, hands now on either side of the board, watched the elephant move to the next square. He then looked up to see Molly watching it too. “Molly, the game thinks I rolled.”

She whips her head up to look him in the eyes. There was no misjudging the fear there now. “What do you mean, ‘the game _thinks_?’” 

Before he could reply, the token reached its destination on the fifth space and the colours swirled once again. 

Sherlock and Molly leaned forward together to read what the game had to say next.

This time, it was Sherlock who read the riddle. “ _In the jungle you must wait, until the dice read five or eight_.”

Their eyes met, still as confused as ever. Sherlock broke the silence as a smile broke across his face.

“The _jungle_?” he said, mocking the game. “Oh very funny. I bet this was a plan set up by Mycroft to see if he could scare me or something equally _dull_. Very funny, Mycroft!” He turned his head towards the doorway and spoke loud enough to be heard throughout the house. “We’re both _very scared_ in here! Scared over some silly little board game, ha!” He scoffed and shook his head, his smile still stretched wide. “Really, Molly, your face was quite price—”

He paused mid-sentence when he looked at her face. If he thought she was scared before, she was downright terrified now.

“Molly? What—” This time he was cut off by her voice.

“Sh-Sherlock,” her whispered voice shook with fear. “Sherlock, your h-hands. L-look at your hands.”

He followed Molly’s gaze and slowly looked down to his hands, lifting them up from the table. 

His hands had begun to dematerialise in front of their eyes. Like sand being sucked into a storm, his fingers were slowly being pulled into the centre of the board game and disappearing all together. 

Panic set in. His eyes were wide like saucers, his heart beating faster than ever before, chest heaving as he tried to catch breath. Molly was screaming, and shouting his name. He looked up to see her clutching both her hands to her chest, as if to stop her heart from jumping out of her chest, and she watched as something swirled around in front of her. _Oh_ , he thought, _that’s me_. Then suddenly he can’t see her anymore and he is shouting and spinning and disappearing into Jumanji. 

He was shouting her name over and over again but all she could do was scream back and watch him deteriorate in front of her. The last thing she heard him say was to _roll the dice _, and then he was gone altogether.__

She stopped screaming for a moment and realised her cheeks were wet with tears. Before she could do anything, she heard the squealing echo from the fireplace. 

She whipped her face to look at it and let out a scream as she saw them come flying out of the hearth. Molly pushed herself up and ran faster than ever towards the door with tears streaming down her face, her screams echoing throughout the house. Flailing her hands above her to keep the bats from getting too close, she made it to the front door and ripped it open. The bats flew out, following Molly Hooper as she ran away as far and as fast as possible.


End file.
